Mercy Oceans, Book 10 (239 pages, 3/21)
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eir values. Then, the most knowledgeable person concerning the value of man is the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., and the other prophets take their knowledge concerning the value of the Sons of Adam from him.
And then, the true followers of the prophets and of the Seal of the Prophets, peace be upon them all, the awliya, know the value of mankind, and they take human beings and arrange them from every side. Then their values, their true forms, appear, and they take them to the Divine Presence. But without a prophet or their inheritors, people are like dis carded stones; even if they are diamonds, without being cut and made suitable, they are not going to be put on a crown.
Therefore the most important work of the prophets and of their successors, the awliya, is to make everyone's value clear by arranging each one according to his promises on the Day of Promises. If anyone is asking to be
in the Divine Presence, in the first rank, he must follow the prophets or those who follow them, the awliya. Those who not follov, no value for them; they still remain like stones. Then finally they must be treated to some training after they leave this life and in Barzakh13 and in the next life in order to allow their values to appear, but they are not going to be in the first rank of those who will be with the prophets and awliya.
No value for a person who stays by himself and never follows the prophets and their inheritors! Even in this life, if a person does not follow a college or university course, he never gains any value in his community; people say, "A simple or ordinary-standard person." But the one who follows a course in a university or college or academy, and it is proved by a certificate or diploma, he has value. As much as you may know by yourself, if you do not follow one of them, no one gives you value; you can't be a doctor, you can't be an engineer, you can't be a lawyer, because you aren't following any school.
Therefore, in the spiritual life, whoever is asking for improvement, as much as he may be by himself, he may acquire something, but it is of no value. You must follow a prophet. Therefore, philosophers, who are asking to reach a point by themselves without following any one of the prophets, have no value. We must follow.
As much as you may follow one of them, you may reach your real value, and that value will appear among creatures on earth and in the Heavens. No one can reach that, particularly heavenly stations, without following someone who belongs to Heaven.
All the prophets belong to Heaven; if a person has no relationship to Heaven, he is not going to be a prophet. The one who has no relationship to Heaven is also not going to be a wali, a saint; it is impossible. There must be a relationship between that person and Heaven, and you must follow such a person who has a relationship between himself and heavenly beings; otherwise, the one who is walking on earth is not going to be a guide to you.
You may find everything on earth, but without a guide you can't find the way to Heaven; it is so difficult and so far and so full of danger. Therefore, there must be a guide for you. Even for a rocket which is sent into space, it is so difficult and so dangerous to be in it or to have the control of it; you can't send a rocket into space just through anyone. He must be a person specially trained for that purpose, knowing best how he may send it. To send a person to the Heavens" - it is more difficult than sending a rocket into space; not everyone can do that. The one who can do that is one who has been sent to the Heavens by the Prophet, p.b.u.h.; he knows the way and he knows how
13 The stage of existence between death and the Day of Judgment.
he may send others. He comes through the Prophet, p.b.u.h., up to his own grandsheikh, never making a mistake.
Don't tell me, "Why are you not sending us now?" Go and tell that engineer or scientist who is preparing that rocket, "Send it into space now." Will he listen to you? He is working on it. A person is going to be ready to send up to the Heavens, Grandsheikh said to me, if forty scholars who know the Shari'ah excellently are with him for forty days and they give a report, saying, "This person is all right from every direction. We, forty scholars, have been looking at him day and night for forty days. In every action and behaviour that person is perfect. According to our knowledge, there is nothing wrong with him." If they give such a report, then it is all right to send him.
We are trying now, but then our egos are coming, destroying this path and damaging us; every bad action damages our inner structure. We are trying to build it, but it is so difficult. But, as we are beginners, it doesn't matter; we are practising, we are building, we are learning, we are preparing ourselves. It is enough to be here humbly and listening; that gives us divine help and makes us to be ready. Even at the last moment we must be complete, insha- Allah; we are going to be complete and go to Heaven, and we will see doors opening to us. So many people, when they go from earth to Heaven, find doors closed to them because they are not ready; then they are sent away to make them ready to go up. But those who come and listen and accept and believe, they must be prepared, even at the last moment before leaving this life, to reach their heavenly stations in the Divine Presence.
OUR FIRST AND MOST DANGEROUS ENEMY, SHAYTAN
We are listening. If we are good listeners, Allah may give us from His divine wisdoms. The one who keeps wisdom well may be given; if not keeping it, no one gives him anything.
The father and mother of the Sons of Adam were created in Paradise. Then they were sent to earth and their descendants grew up on this earth. Their father and mother knew what Paradise was. They had been there, they had lived there; they had seen Paradise and knew what it was. And they told their descendants about Paradise, and also about how they came, or how they had been sent, on earth.
Allah Almighty created Adam, p.b.u.h., to be a deputy for Himself. He gave Adam the most honoured station among creatures; no one else can be at the station of Adam and his sons. And the one who had been created be Allah's deputy, the highest rank among creatures, all creatures accepted him as His
deputy; all of them said that if our Lord makesm His deputy, we all agree with our Lord's will.
It is written and stated, coming to us through the Prophet's traditions, that when Allah Almighty created Adam and he was lying there. before the divine soul had entered into him, Shaytan was the teacher of the angels14. We have a saying, "Those who have not been given from Allah Almighty's favours are jealous of others who have been given. Shaytan came with a group of angels, and he saw that the body of Adam was lying at the entrance of Paradise but there was no soul in him; of clay. He went around and inspected every part of him, looking and saying, "This is a new creature, and it is an empty one, not solid," and then he entered from the mouth of that form of Adam. He meant, "I can enter into these creatures and I can take my control." Because our mouths are open for eating. drinking, breathing, Satan can come in and go around everywhere, in our veins.
Because every creature that has been created is going to be more perfect, evolution going up, Shaytan knew that that creature was going to be more perfect (he has so much knowledge, big head!). Then he stood and looked, addressing the angels: "O angels, what about this one? This is a new one, and there is going to be something important for him. Look at me, O my.
Lord's angels! If your Lord is going to give that one more honours than yourselves, putting him in a station above your stations, what are you going to do?"
They said, "We are obedient servants."
"Will you accept that new one to be higher than you?" "We agree with our
"As our Lord wants it to be," they said. Lord's will. As He likes, we like."
"Hmm," said Iblis, Shaytan, within himself. Among all creatures, only Shaytan said this, and Allah Almighty was looking and listening to what he said within himself, not with his tongue. "If Allah Almighty gives that new one a rank higher than my rank, I am not going to accept it. I am not going to
14 See XVIII:50, in which it is stated that Iblis or Shaytan, Satan, was a jinn. Because he possessed great knowledge, Allah Almighty had placed him among the angels as their instructor.
agree for that one to be more than me, to be over me," he said. "Then, if Allah Almighty has made him over me, I am going to destroy him."
You understand? Satan was saying, "From both sides, I don't like this new one. If I am over him, I am going to destroy him. And if he is over me, I am not going to obey Allah Almighty and to accept him over me."
And then that happened: Allah Almighty gave Adam from His divine attributes and asked all the angels to make sajdah, prostration, to Adam, and all the angels made sajdah. But one, Shaytan, never made sajdah.
Therefore, from the beginning, we have an enemy. That is a rule: the imperfect one is going to be enemy to the perfect one. That must be known; that takes place among people always. Mankind got their first lesson not from their grandfather Adam, but they got a lesson from the enemy of their father and mother.
Therefore, the first in rebellion against Allah Almighty among all creatures was Shaytan. And when he rebelled against his Lord, everything was taken away from him. His name was 'Azazil; it was an honourable name, and he was among the angels in such a station as no one can be in. He had been honoured by his Lord Almighty, but when he went against his Lord's order and rebelled, his name was changed to Shaytan and he was cast out. And what Allah Almighty had given him of a luminous and goodly form was taken away from him, also, so that he is now such an ugly person.
If anyone looks at Satan and sees him in his real form, for forty days he will be sick at his stomach; yes, such an ugly, such a dirty one! Rebellion caused him to be in a very ugly and very hated form, and he continued in his sin, in his guilt, not doing repentance.
One day Moses, p.b.u.h., was going to Mount Sinai and he met Satan on his way, saying to him, "O Moses, you are going to your Lord, to con verse with Him. Ask if there can be taubah, repentance or forgiveness, for me, because I am fed up. If there is forgiveness, I will ask forgiveness. Ask from your Lord!"
Moses said, "Yes, I will," and he went up to Mount Sinai. But then, listening to Allah Almighty's divine speech, he forgot.
Then Allah Almighty made him remember. "O Moses, why are you not bringing that request of Shaytan's?"
"O my Lord, I just forgot!"
"If it is from forgetting, it doesn't matter; that is forgiven. But if you are saying, 'That Iblis - for what will I bring his request?' that is dangerous. If you are looking at it with the idea of putting him down, I do not agree to that."
You must see how Allah Almighty looks out for His creatures. Satan is also one of His creatures, and Allah Almighty never likes His servants to be in kufr, disbelief, and to be rebellious. And Moses, trembling, said, "O my Lord, I only forgot."
"What did he say to you, what is his request?"
Moses said, "You know well, O my Lord. He was asking if he has forgiveness, if there can be repentance for him."
"Yes," Allah Almighty said. "If he is asking for repentance, for giveness - yes, I forgive him. But there is a condition. If he does what I ask, I will forgive him. I will give him back all the ranks that I took away from him and I will give him new ones, also, more than those."
"What is that condition?"
"Tell him to go quickly to Adam's grave and make sajdah," Allah Almighty said. "Ma yubaddalu-l-qaulu ladayya (L:29), My word no one can change. That is My order, that is My will. Must make sajdah to Adam; then I will forgive him. I am his Lord; I may order, no one else. Who is he that he does not obey My order? He puts himself above My will? Tell him to quickly run and make sajdah to the grave of Adam. Then I shall forgive him."
Yes; you must know who Allah is. If He orders thirty days of fasting, you must fast. He ordered some nations before the nation of beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., difficult fasting, ordering them to do no work while they were fasting and no movement, no action; they had to stop everything.
Ordering them to break their fast only twice in fifteen days. To some of them He ordered three days’ fasting; to some He ordered fasting with only drops of water to break their fast. Some of them were forbidden to swallow their saliva, also. Yes, He is our Lord; He may order!
When Adam, p.b.u.h., rebelled against his Lord and ate from that Tree, for thirty days he did not eat anything, until the traces were completely gone. Our grandfather Adam fasted for thirty days to make his body free from that prohibited Tree, to make it clean - thirty days. And it was right for his sons, also, a fast of thirty days. When your Lord orders, don't be afraid that you are going to die - no! When you have the intention, even if Allah Almighty orders you to break your fast only once in thirty days, it is all right. You must say, "We are ready, o our Lord. As You order."
But from His endless mercy, He gives us a fast from the time of dawn up to sunset, only a few hours. Then we eat as much as we left in the daytime, eating twice as much - yes! But we must know that He is our Lord and that He may command, and we must be obedient servants. To whom are you going to be obedient servants - to people like yourselves, coming before him if he is a rich man, if he is a powerful man? Who is Iblis, Shaytan, Satan, to refuse the command of the Lord of the universes? How could he refuse his Creator's command?
But he was drunk; Satan was drunk with pride because Allah Al mighty had given him a chance to worship, and he was one of the greatest worshippers. Allah Almighty had also given him knowledge that no one among the angels had been given, and because of his worshipping and because of his knowledge, he became too proud, thinking, "How well I am making sajdah to Allah!"
The one who is commanding you, the one who is ordering you - that one is drunk! Therefore, every proud person is drunk - yes. And Satan was still drunk when Moses came back. He was waiting, waiting. And he said, "What about me?"
"Yes," Moses said, "He is going to forgive you. But there is one condition." "What is that?"
"Your Lord says to you, 'My word is not going to be changed, My order must be obeyed.' You must go to the grave of our grandfather Adam and make sajdah there. Then He may forgive you."
Then that drunk Iblis jumped to his feet, saying, "If He is not going to forgive me without making sajdah, I will never make sajdah! I refused when he was alive; then how am I going to make sajdah to a person's dirty corpse?" - saying that and running away.
Therefore, on the Day of Resurrection, Allah Almighty will order him to Hell. And once every 120,000 years Allah Almighty will order Malik15, the Keeper of Hell, to bring Satan to the door of Paradise. When the angel brings Satan to the entrance of Paradise, he will order Adam to come to the entrance and will say to Satan, "Allah Almighty orders you to make sajdah and enter."
But Satan will say, "I will never change, I will never make sajdah! I will go back." He agrees to be in Hell forever but not to make sajdah to Adam. Make
15 The great archangel who is in charge of Hell
sajdah and enter! "No," he says, so many times not entering when he sees Adam there.
Therefore, the one who is stubborn will never enter Paradise until he is cleansed, here or there, because Paradise is for clean people, pure people; no dirty people can enter Paradise. And therefore Allah Almighty has ordered purification for every nation so that its people may enter. If a person is pure here, he will be in Paradise here, also. But the one who is not pure is not in Paradise; instead, Hell comes upon him.
We must know our first and most dangerous enemy: this is the summary for our assembly today. We must know who caused Adam and Eve to come on earth, and we must know that every trouble which exists among the Sons of Adam is because of the enmity of Satan for them. He makes people to be enemies; he is the enemy of the Sons of Adam and he gives that enmity to everyone.
By what thing does he give it? He gives enmity to people by means of this temporary life's pleasures, cheating people with dunya, with this life. Satan says to everyone that this belongs to you, while dunya does not belong to anyone except Allah, and Satan is just cheating people. And for the cause of this world, nations are fighting, people are quarreling, and troubles and sufferings are going on.
We must know our most dangerous enemy, Grandsheikh said, may Allah bless him, and we must leave enmity for each other. Nafs, hawa, Shaytan and dunya - these are the four enemies of the Sons of Adam, and three of them are marching along under the command of Shaytan. Whoever takes more than these four enemies is rebellious against his Lord, because Allah Almighty says to people, "Your most dangerous enemy is Shaytan, and next, your ego. And Shaytan and ego are cheating you by means of this world's, this life's, pleasures. Be careful! Warning!"
On a door I saw a picture of a dog's head, and "Warning - Dog!" was written under it. If an illiterate person looks at the dog's head, he takes precautions. Allah Almighty says this, also, but the Sons of Adam never take precautions against Satan.
That is a surprising thing. Allah Almighty says, "Be careful! Warning!" through 124,000 prophets, and at the last, the Seal of the Prophets says, "Take your precautions, O my Lord's servants!: There is a dog, a terrible dog, after you. Be careful!" But we say, "No; it is our friend, a friend of mine."
The one who knows his enemy takes his precautions, and he is going to be protected, here and Hereafter. If not taking precautions. Yesterday I saw a
picture in a newspaper: a person wearing red clothes was sitting in a hospital cell of death, with bars. What was written under it? "Bitten by a rabid dog"; it had bitten him and death was approaching. Satan is more dangerous than that rabid dog. Keep yourself!
THE CAPACITY OF EVERYONE TO ACT LIKE PHAROAH
During the Ascension, the Night Journey, Allah Almighty said to beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., "O Muhammad, if I were to give everyone the same chance or the same occasions or the same opportunity that I gave to Pharoah, all of you would be like Pharoah. If I were to put anyone on the throne of Egypt and all the people came and bowed down to him, no one would not be a Pharoah; everyone must be a Pharoah. But I am keeping them back. Therefore, no one is going to be like Pharoah."
Allah Almighty means to say that if a person finds suitable conditions for his ego, his ego is going to make him like Pharoah. You have seeds; if you put them on the floor, on stone, they will never open, or perhaps they may open as an onion sprouts in the kitchen but never gives a head, while if you put it in a field it will give the head of an onion. All people are getting their egos to sprout, but after a little bit, finished. But if they find a field like Pharoah's field (there was a very suitable field for Pharoah's ego in Egypt), then they shout and say, "I am your Lord!"
We do not find that field. Therefore we must thank Allah Almighty that He does not give us that chance. And you can see also that anyone who is over another person makes himself like Pharoah on that person and wants to destroy him. Therefore, now communist people are always proclaiming everywhere that there are two kinds of people, one oppressed and the other oppressors; one down below, one on top.
That is a dangerous ego. Such a person is more terrible and dangerous than any wild beast, and all troubles arise from that point, because there is no more spiritual training. If we have spiritual training, our ego will never raise its head and say, "I am your Lord!" But if there is no spiritual training or practises, then, if your ego finds one person whom it can dominate, it says, "I am your Lord. You must obey Me. You must be My obedient servant, you must be My slave!"
Therefore Islam fought against slavery, trying to bring people out of slavery; yes, both inwardly and outwardly, slavery from that which everyone knows and the other slavery, from the hands of our egos - to bring people into
freedom. But in our time people are understanding freedom in another way and they are becoming more enslaved.
Now, therefore, everyone, particularly in Western countries, is proclaiming that "freedom," this country's "freedom." In Eastern, communist, countries, there is no freedom. They impose so many limits; no freedom for individual people. They look upon everything as mass - mass freedoms, not individual freedoms. But here there is individual freedom, and people have been given unlimited freedom so that their egos are making them unimitedly enslaved. As much as you give that "freedom," you make people more enslaved.
This is an important secret that psychiatrists must know. For most people who are suffering and going to psychiatrists, the reason is only because they have been given unlimited freedom. That makes people ill and suffering.
GUARDING YOUR HEART FROM DUNYA
May Allah Almighty give us from His divine wisdoms, because we may have knowledge, but if no wisdoms, knowledge is going to do nothing. We are in need of wisdom, and a little wisdom is more important than all this world's knowledge. Knowledge cannot push or pull you, but wisdom may pull you or push you. In wisdom there is power. Therefore knowledge without wisdom never gives benefit.
If knowledge could give benefit to anyone, it would have given it to Shaytan. He is the first in knowledge, knowing the Injil16, the Torah, the Psalms, the Holy Qur'an. No one among scholars can compete with him; he comes first, he knows so much. But without wisdom; he had so much knowledge without wisdom and then he fell. Therefore, it is not important to learn so much, to know so much, but it is important to ask some wisdoms from Allah Almighty. Even one wisdom is going to be enough for you forever, to take you to happiness and peace here and Hereafter, to our Lord's pleasure.
Allah Almighty sent 6,666 verses in the Holy Qur'an. Each verse is like an endless ocean, and the oceans are full of precious pearls. But if pearls could be had easily, they would be cheap. Why are pearls precious, valuable?
Because pearls can be found in the deepest places in the seas, and
16 The name given by Islam to the divine scripture revealed to the Prophet Jesus, p.b.u.h., of which parts may be interwoven in the narratives of the four Gospels.
dangerous places, also. Allah Almighty always makes something valuable and precious protected, so that it is not easily reached. A rose without thorns and a treasure without dragons... no!
Everything that you can get easily is cheap. You can buy tomatoes, potatoes, onions, everywhere, but rubies, diamonds, pearls, you cannot find everywhere, although you can find so many of glass. Therefore, from oceans you may take fishes, you may take shells; the sea throws shells on the beach but it never throws pearls. And each verse of the Holy Qur'an is like endless oceans. The one who makes himself to dive in may take.
How would a person dive into the sea with clothes? No one dives into the deep sea wearing clothes; people like to take off as much as they can for diving. And for "Verse Oceans," for the Oceans of the Holy Qur'an, you must take off everything and then you may dive into them.
What are you going to take off? Not things like these clothes. You must take from your heart everything belonging to this world; you must take away from your heart dunya, this world's pleasures. And you must know what dunya is.
Everything that engages you or occupies you from your Lord and you have enjoyment with it is dunya; everything that occupies a servant from his Lord - that is dunya.. This is the most important point for everyone, for every believer, whether his faith may be Jewish or Christian or Muslim: When Allah Almighty looks at their hearts, by whom are their hearts occupied?
Allah Almighty does not look at our titles that we put here - no; He looks at our hearts and sees by whom they are occupied. Is that heart just engaged by Himself alone, or by dunya? You must know that Allah Almighty gives permission for all of your body that it may work, may be engaged by this life, excepting your heart. You may be occupied through your body; doesn't matter, because we live in this life and we have some responsibilities. Allah Almighty gives permission for our organs to go, to come, to look, to do, but He says, "Only your heart - don't let it be engaged by dunya."
Keep your heart for your Lord only and He is going to be pleased with you. And when He is pleased with you, He is going to make you pleased with Him. That is sa'adat al-kubra, the highest happiness. You will have been given endless happiness when Allah Almighty makes you pleased.
We are asking His pleasure with us, we are trying to make Him pleased with us. Anything except that does not give our Lord pleasure with us. Complete pleasure from Allah Almighty with His servants is when His servants give their hearts to Him Almighty.
But it is not easy; it is the most difficult of command and the most important of worship. And every worship and prayer that we do with our bodies, bodily worship, is only for that purpose: to transfer from our bodies into our hearts, because worshipping is giving our respects to our Lord.
We give our respects with our organs, and that is within limits; but for the one who gives his respects with his heart, it is going to be unlimited. And we have been ordered to worship our Lord without limits. You can't do that with your bodies but you can do it with your hearts.
That is a wisdom to know and to work on. And it is enough for us, rather than learning thousands and thousands of books to make stores of knowledge.
Then you can't carry it; it is too heavy a burden. But it is brief wisdom that makes us move toward our Lord. He is inviting us, and we must go to Him.
Allah Almighty chooses among His servants for giving His divine wisdoms. When He looks at His servant's heart and sees Himself, He gives that person from His divine wisdoms. But if anyone keeps his heart for dunya, for his nafs, he may be given so much knowledge, but without benefit. Therefore the Prophet asked from his Lord Almighty "Tilman naf'ian," knowledge that gives benefit - and that is hikmah, that is wisdom.
It is not going to be easy. We must work on it. And firstly, you must cut your ego's desires and you must put a limit on your ego, on its desires. If you leave your ego, your nafs, free, you can't find any limit to its desires, so that it is always occupying you and making you its slave; no time for your Lord's service, for your Lord's worship. Therefore, we must put a limit on our nafs, on its desires. An
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eir values. Then, the most knowledgeable person concerning the value of man is the Seal of the Prophets, beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., and the other prophets take their knowledge concerning the value of the Sons of Adam from him.
And then, the true followers of the prophets and of the Seal of the Prophets, peace be upon them all, the awliya, know the value of mankind, and they take human beings and arrange them from every side. Then their values, their true forms, appear, and they take them to the Divine Presence. But without a prophet or their inheritors, people are like dis carded stones; even if they are diamonds, without being cut and made suitable, they are not going to be put on a crown.
Therefore the most important work of the prophets and of their successors, the awliya, is to make everyone's value clear by arranging each one according to his promises on the Day of Promises. If anyone is asking to be
in the Divine Presence, in the first rank, he must follow the prophets or those who follow them, the awliya. Those who not follov, no value for them; they still remain like stones. Then finally they must be treated to some training after they leave this life and in Barzakh13 and in the next life in order to allow their values to appear, but they are not going to be in the first rank of those who will be with the prophets and awliya.
No value for a person who stays by himself and never follows the prophets and their inheritors! Even in this life, if a person does not follow a college or university course, he never gains any value in his community; people say, "A simple or ordinary-standard person." But the one who follows a course in a university or college or academy, and it is proved by a certificate or diploma, he has value. As much as you may know by yourself, if you do not follow one of them, no one gives you value; you can't be a doctor, you can't be an engineer, you can't be a lawyer, because you aren't following any school.
Therefore, in the spiritual life, whoever is asking for improvement, as much as he may be by himself, he may acquire something, but it is of no value. You must follow a prophet. Therefore, philosophers, who are asking to reach a point by themselves without following any one of the prophets, have no value. We must follow.
As much as you may follow one of them, you may reach your real value, and that value will appear among creatures on earth and in the Heavens. No one can reach that, particularly heavenly stations, without following someone who belongs to Heaven.
All the prophets belong to Heaven; if a person has no relationship to Heaven, he is not going to be a prophet. The one who has no relationship to Heaven is also not going to be a wali, a saint; it is impossible. There must be a relationship between that person and Heaven, and you must follow such a person who has a relationship between himself and heavenly beings; otherwise, the one who is walking on earth is not going to be a guide to you.
You may find everything on earth, but without a guide you can't find the way to Heaven; it is so difficult and so far and so full of danger. Therefore, there must be a guide for you. Even for a rocket which is sent into space, it is so difficult and so dangerous to be in it or to have the control of it; you can't send a rocket into space just through anyone. He must be a person specially trained for that purpose, knowing best how he may send it. To send a person to the Heavens" - it is more difficult than sending a rocket into space; not everyone can do that. The one who can do that is one who has been sent to the Heavens by the Prophet, p.b.u.h.; he knows the way and he knows how
13 The stage of existence between death and the Day of Judgment.
he may send others. He comes through the Prophet, p.b.u.h., up to his own grandsheikh, never making a mistake.
Don't tell me, "Why are you not sending us now?" Go and tell that engineer or scientist who is preparing that rocket, "Send it into space now." Will he listen to you? He is working on it. A person is going to be ready to send up to the Heavens, Grandsheikh said to me, if forty scholars who know the Shari'ah excellently are with him for forty days and they give a report, saying, "This person is all right from every direction. We, forty scholars, have been looking at him day and night for forty days. In every action and behaviour that person is perfect. According to our knowledge, there is nothing wrong with him." If they give such a report, then it is all right to send him.
We are trying now, but then our egos are coming, destroying this path and damaging us; every bad action damages our inner structure. We are trying to build it, but it is so difficult. But, as we are beginners, it doesn't matter; we are practising, we are building, we are learning, we are preparing ourselves. It is enough to be here humbly and listening; that gives us divine help and makes us to be ready. Even at the last moment we must be complete, insha- Allah; we are going to be complete and go to Heaven, and we will see doors opening to us. So many people, when they go from earth to Heaven, find doors closed to them because they are not ready; then they are sent away to make them ready to go up. But those who come and listen and accept and believe, they must be prepared, even at the last moment before leaving this life, to reach their heavenly stations in the Divine Presence.
OUR FIRST AND MOST DANGEROUS ENEMY, SHAYTAN
We are listening. If we are good listeners, Allah may give us from His divine wisdoms. The one who keeps wisdom well may be given; if not keeping it, no one gives him anything.
The father and mother of the Sons of Adam were created in Paradise. Then they were sent to earth and their descendants grew up on this earth. Their father and mother knew what Paradise was. They had been there, they had lived there; they had seen Paradise and knew what it was. And they told their descendants about Paradise, and also about how they came, or how they had been sent, on earth.
Allah Almighty created Adam, p.b.u.h., to be a deputy for Himself. He gave Adam the most honoured station among creatures; no one else can be at the station of Adam and his sons. And the one who had been created be Allah's deputy, the highest rank among creatures, all creatures accepted him as His
deputy; all of them said that if our Lord makesm His deputy, we all agree with our Lord's will.
It is written and stated, coming to us through the Prophet's traditions, that when Allah Almighty created Adam and he was lying there. before the divine soul had entered into him, Shaytan was the teacher of the angels14. We have a saying, "Those who have not been given from Allah Almighty's favours are jealous of others who have been given. Shaytan came with a group of angels, and he saw that the body of Adam was lying at the entrance of Paradise but there was no soul in him; of clay. He went around and inspected every part of him, looking and saying, "This is a new creature, and it is an empty one, not solid," and then he entered from the mouth of that form of Adam. He meant, "I can enter into these creatures and I can take my control." Because our mouths are open for eating. drinking, breathing, Satan can come in and go around everywhere, in our veins.
Because every creature that has been created is going to be more perfect, evolution going up, Shaytan knew that that creature was going to be more perfect (he has so much knowledge, big head!). Then he stood and looked, addressing the angels: "O angels, what about this one? This is a new one, and there is going to be something important for him. Look at me, O my.
Lord's angels! If your Lord is going to give that one more honours than yourselves, putting him in a station above your stations, what are you going to do?"
They said, "We are obedient servants."
"Will you accept that new one to be higher than you?" "We agree with our
"As our Lord wants it to be," they said. Lord's will. As He likes, we like."
"Hmm," said Iblis, Shaytan, within himself. Among all creatures, only Shaytan said this, and Allah Almighty was looking and listening to what he said within himself, not with his tongue. "If Allah Almighty gives that new one a rank higher than my rank, I am not going to accept it. I am not going to
14 See XVIII:50, in which it is stated that Iblis or Shaytan, Satan, was a jinn. Because he possessed great knowledge, Allah Almighty had placed him among the angels as their instructor.
agree for that one to be more than me, to be over me," he said. "Then, if Allah Almighty has made him over me, I am going to destroy him."
You understand? Satan was saying, "From both sides, I don't like this new one. If I am over him, I am going to destroy him. And if he is over me, I am not going to obey Allah Almighty and to accept him over me."
And then that happened: Allah Almighty gave Adam from His divine attributes and asked all the angels to make sajdah, prostration, to Adam, and all the angels made sajdah. But one, Shaytan, never made sajdah.
Therefore, from the beginning, we have an enemy. That is a rule: the imperfect one is going to be enemy to the perfect one. That must be known; that takes place among people always. Mankind got their first lesson not from their grandfather Adam, but they got a lesson from the enemy of their father and mother.
Therefore, the first in rebellion against Allah Almighty among all creatures was Shaytan. And when he rebelled against his Lord, everything was taken away from him. His name was 'Azazil; it was an honourable name, and he was among the angels in such a station as no one can be in. He had been honoured by his Lord Almighty, but when he went against his Lord's order and rebelled, his name was changed to Shaytan and he was cast out. And what Allah Almighty had given him of a luminous and goodly form was taken away from him, also, so that he is now such an ugly person.
If anyone looks at Satan and sees him in his real form, for forty days he will be sick at his stomach; yes, such an ugly, such a dirty one! Rebellion caused him to be in a very ugly and very hated form, and he continued in his sin, in his guilt, not doing repentance.
One day Moses, p.b.u.h., was going to Mount Sinai and he met Satan on his way, saying to him, "O Moses, you are going to your Lord, to con verse with Him. Ask if there can be taubah, repentance or forgiveness, for me, because I am fed up. If there is forgiveness, I will ask forgiveness. Ask from your Lord!"
Moses said, "Yes, I will," and he went up to Mount Sinai. But then, listening to Allah Almighty's divine speech, he forgot.
Then Allah Almighty made him remember. "O Moses, why are you not bringing that request of Shaytan's?"
"O my Lord, I just forgot!"
"If it is from forgetting, it doesn't matter; that is forgiven. But if you are saying, 'That Iblis - for what will I bring his request?' that is dangerous. If you are looking at it with the idea of putting him down, I do not agree to that."
You must see how Allah Almighty looks out for His creatures. Satan is also one of His creatures, and Allah Almighty never likes His servants to be in kufr, disbelief, and to be rebellious. And Moses, trembling, said, "O my Lord, I only forgot."
"What did he say to you, what is his request?"
Moses said, "You know well, O my Lord. He was asking if he has forgiveness, if there can be repentance for him."
"Yes," Allah Almighty said. "If he is asking for repentance, for giveness - yes, I forgive him. But there is a condition. If he does what I ask, I will forgive him. I will give him back all the ranks that I took away from him and I will give him new ones, also, more than those."
"What is that condition?"
"Tell him to go quickly to Adam's grave and make sajdah," Allah Almighty said. "Ma yubaddalu-l-qaulu ladayya (L:29), My word no one can change. That is My order, that is My will. Must make sajdah to Adam; then I will forgive him. I am his Lord; I may order, no one else. Who is he that he does not obey My order? He puts himself above My will? Tell him to quickly run and make sajdah to the grave of Adam. Then I shall forgive him."
Yes; you must know who Allah is. If He orders thirty days of fasting, you must fast. He ordered some nations before the nation of beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., difficult fasting, ordering them to do no work while they were fasting and no movement, no action; they had to stop everything.
Ordering them to break their fast only twice in fifteen days. To some of them He ordered three days’ fasting; to some He ordered fasting with only drops of water to break their fast. Some of them were forbidden to swallow their saliva, also. Yes, He is our Lord; He may order!
When Adam, p.b.u.h., rebelled against his Lord and ate from that Tree, for thirty days he did not eat anything, until the traces were completely gone. Our grandfather Adam fasted for thirty days to make his body free from that prohibited Tree, to make it clean - thirty days. And it was right for his sons, also, a fast of thirty days. When your Lord orders, don't be afraid that you are going to die - no! When you have the intention, even if Allah Almighty orders you to break your fast only once in thirty days, it is all right. You must say, "We are ready, o our Lord. As You order."
But from His endless mercy, He gives us a fast from the time of dawn up to sunset, only a few hours. Then we eat as much as we left in the daytime, eating twice as much - yes! But we must know that He is our Lord and that He may command, and we must be obedient servants. To whom are you going to be obedient servants - to people like yourselves, coming before him if he is a rich man, if he is a powerful man? Who is Iblis, Shaytan, Satan, to refuse the command of the Lord of the universes? How could he refuse his Creator's command?
But he was drunk; Satan was drunk with pride because Allah Al mighty had given him a chance to worship, and he was one of the greatest worshippers. Allah Almighty had also given him knowledge that no one among the angels had been given, and because of his worshipping and because of his knowledge, he became too proud, thinking, "How well I am making sajdah to Allah!"
The one who is commanding you, the one who is ordering you - that one is drunk! Therefore, every proud person is drunk - yes. And Satan was still drunk when Moses came back. He was waiting, waiting. And he said, "What about me?"
"Yes," Moses said, "He is going to forgive you. But there is one condition." "What is that?"
"Your Lord says to you, 'My word is not going to be changed, My order must be obeyed.' You must go to the grave of our grandfather Adam and make sajdah there. Then He may forgive you."
Then that drunk Iblis jumped to his feet, saying, "If He is not going to forgive me without making sajdah, I will never make sajdah! I refused when he was alive; then how am I going to make sajdah to a person's dirty corpse?" - saying that and running away.
Therefore, on the Day of Resurrection, Allah Almighty will order him to Hell. And once every 120,000 years Allah Almighty will order Malik15, the Keeper of Hell, to bring Satan to the door of Paradise. When the angel brings Satan to the entrance of Paradise, he will order Adam to come to the entrance and will say to Satan, "Allah Almighty orders you to make sajdah and enter."
But Satan will say, "I will never change, I will never make sajdah! I will go back." He agrees to be in Hell forever but not to make sajdah to Adam. Make
15 The great archangel who is in charge of Hell
sajdah and enter! "No," he says, so many times not entering when he sees Adam there.
Therefore, the one who is stubborn will never enter Paradise until he is cleansed, here or there, because Paradise is for clean people, pure people; no dirty people can enter Paradise. And therefore Allah Almighty has ordered purification for every nation so that its people may enter. If a person is pure here, he will be in Paradise here, also. But the one who is not pure is not in Paradise; instead, Hell comes upon him.
We must know our first and most dangerous enemy: this is the summary for our assembly today. We must know who caused Adam and Eve to come on earth, and we must know that every trouble which exists among the Sons of Adam is because of the enmity of Satan for them. He makes people to be enemies; he is the enemy of the Sons of Adam and he gives that enmity to everyone.
By what thing does he give it? He gives enmity to people by means of this temporary life's pleasures, cheating people with dunya, with this life. Satan says to everyone that this belongs to you, while dunya does not belong to anyone except Allah, and Satan is just cheating people. And for the cause of this world, nations are fighting, people are quarreling, and troubles and sufferings are going on.
We must know our most dangerous enemy, Grandsheikh said, may Allah bless him, and we must leave enmity for each other. Nafs, hawa, Shaytan and dunya - these are the four enemies of the Sons of Adam, and three of them are marching along under the command of Shaytan. Whoever takes more than these four enemies is rebellious against his Lord, because Allah Almighty says to people, "Your most dangerous enemy is Shaytan, and next, your ego. And Shaytan and ego are cheating you by means of this world's, this life's, pleasures. Be careful! Warning!"
On a door I saw a picture of a dog's head, and "Warning - Dog!" was written under it. If an illiterate person looks at the dog's head, he takes precautions. Allah Almighty says this, also, but the Sons of Adam never take precautions against Satan.
That is a surprising thing. Allah Almighty says, "Be careful! Warning!" through 124,000 prophets, and at the last, the Seal of the Prophets says, "Take your precautions, O my Lord's servants!: There is a dog, a terrible dog, after you. Be careful!" But we say, "No; it is our friend, a friend of mine."
The one who knows his enemy takes his precautions, and he is going to be protected, here and Hereafter. If not taking precautions. Yesterday I saw a
picture in a newspaper: a person wearing red clothes was sitting in a hospital cell of death, with bars. What was written under it? "Bitten by a rabid dog"; it had bitten him and death was approaching. Satan is more dangerous than that rabid dog. Keep yourself!
THE CAPACITY OF EVERYONE TO ACT LIKE PHAROAH
During the Ascension, the Night Journey, Allah Almighty said to beloved Muhammad, p.b.u.h., "O Muhammad, if I were to give everyone the same chance or the same occasions or the same opportunity that I gave to Pharoah, all of you would be like Pharoah. If I were to put anyone on the throne of Egypt and all the people came and bowed down to him, no one would not be a Pharoah; everyone must be a Pharoah. But I am keeping them back. Therefore, no one is going to be like Pharoah."
Allah Almighty means to say that if a person finds suitable conditions for his ego, his ego is going to make him like Pharoah. You have seeds; if you put them on the floor, on stone, they will never open, or perhaps they may open as an onion sprouts in the kitchen but never gives a head, while if you put it in a field it will give the head of an onion. All people are getting their egos to sprout, but after a little bit, finished. But if they find a field like Pharoah's field (there was a very suitable field for Pharoah's ego in Egypt), then they shout and say, "I am your Lord!"
We do not find that field. Therefore we must thank Allah Almighty that He does not give us that chance. And you can see also that anyone who is over another person makes himself like Pharoah on that person and wants to destroy him. Therefore, now communist people are always proclaiming everywhere that there are two kinds of people, one oppressed and the other oppressors; one down below, one on top.
That is a dangerous ego. Such a person is more terrible and dangerous than any wild beast, and all troubles arise from that point, because there is no more spiritual training. If we have spiritual training, our ego will never raise its head and say, "I am your Lord!" But if there is no spiritual training or practises, then, if your ego finds one person whom it can dominate, it says, "I am your Lord. You must obey Me. You must be My obedient servant, you must be My slave!"
Therefore Islam fought against slavery, trying to bring people out of slavery; yes, both inwardly and outwardly, slavery from that which everyone knows and the other slavery, from the hands of our egos - to bring people into
freedom. But in our time people are understanding freedom in another way and they are becoming more enslaved.
Now, therefore, everyone, particularly in Western countries, is proclaiming that "freedom," this country's "freedom." In Eastern, communist, countries, there is no freedom. They impose so many limits; no freedom for individual people. They look upon everything as mass - mass freedoms, not individual freedoms. But here there is individual freedom, and people have been given unlimited freedom so that their egos are making them unimitedly enslaved. As much as you give that "freedom," you make people more enslaved.
This is an important secret that psychiatrists must know. For most people who are suffering and going to psychiatrists, the reason is only because they have been given unlimited freedom. That makes people ill and suffering.
GUARDING YOUR HEART FROM DUNYA
May Allah Almighty give us from His divine wisdoms, because we may have knowledge, but if no wisdoms, knowledge is going to do nothing. We are in need of wisdom, and a little wisdom is more important than all this world's knowledge. Knowledge cannot push or pull you, but wisdom may pull you or push you. In wisdom there is power. Therefore knowledge without wisdom never gives benefit.
If knowledge could give benefit to anyone, it would have given it to Shaytan. He is the first in knowledge, knowing the Injil16, the Torah, the Psalms, the Holy Qur'an. No one among scholars can compete with him; he comes first, he knows so much. But without wisdom; he had so much knowledge without wisdom and then he fell. Therefore, it is not important to learn so much, to know so much, but it is important to ask some wisdoms from Allah Almighty. Even one wisdom is going to be enough for you forever, to take you to happiness and peace here and Hereafter, to our Lord's pleasure.
Allah Almighty sent 6,666 verses in the Holy Qur'an. Each verse is like an endless ocean, and the oceans are full of precious pearls. But if pearls could be had easily, they would be cheap. Why are pearls precious, valuable?
Because pearls can be found in the deepest places in the seas, and
16 The name given by Islam to the divine scripture revealed to the Prophet Jesus, p.b.u.h., of which parts may be interwoven in the narratives of the four Gospels.
dangerous places, also. Allah Almighty always makes something valuable and precious protected, so that it is not easily reached. A rose without thorns and a treasure without dragons... no!
Everything that you can get easily is cheap. You can buy tomatoes, potatoes, onions, everywhere, but rubies, diamonds, pearls, you cannot find everywhere, although you can find so many of glass. Therefore, from oceans you may take fishes, you may take shells; the sea throws shells on the beach but it never throws pearls. And each verse of the Holy Qur'an is like endless oceans. The one who makes himself to dive in may take.
How would a person dive into the sea with clothes? No one dives into the deep sea wearing clothes; people like to take off as much as they can for diving. And for "Verse Oceans," for the Oceans of the Holy Qur'an, you must take off everything and then you may dive into them.
What are you going to take off? Not things like these clothes. You must take from your heart everything belonging to this world; you must take away from your heart dunya, this world's pleasures. And you must know what dunya is.
Everything that engages you or occupies you from your Lord and you have enjoyment with it is dunya; everything that occupies a servant from his Lord - that is dunya.. This is the most important point for everyone, for every believer, whether his faith may be Jewish or Christian or Muslim: When Allah Almighty looks at their hearts, by whom are their hearts occupied?
Allah Almighty does not look at our titles that we put here - no; He looks at our hearts and sees by whom they are occupied. Is that heart just engaged by Himself alone, or by dunya? You must know that Allah Almighty gives permission for all of your body that it may work, may be engaged by this life, excepting your heart. You may be occupied through your body; doesn't matter, because we live in this life and we have some responsibilities. Allah Almighty gives permission for our organs to go, to come, to look, to do, but He says, "Only your heart - don't let it be engaged by dunya."
Keep your heart for your Lord only and He is going to be pleased with you. And when He is pleased with you, He is going to make you pleased with Him. That is sa'adat al-kubra, the highest happiness. You will have been given endless happiness when Allah Almighty makes you pleased.
We are asking His pleasure with us, we are trying to make Him pleased with us. Anything except that does not give our Lord pleasure with us. Complete pleasure from Allah Almighty with His servants is when His servants give their hearts to Him Almighty.
But it is not easy; it is the most difficult of command and the most important of worship. And every worship and prayer that we do with our bodies, bodily worship, is only for that purpose: to transfer from our bodies into our hearts, because worshipping is giving our respects to our Lord.
We give our respects with our organs, and that is within limits; but for the one who gives his respects with his heart, it is going to be unlimited. And we have been ordered to worship our Lord without limits. You can't do that with your bodies but you can do it with your hearts.
That is a wisdom to know and to work on. And it is enough for us, rather than learning thousands and thousands of books to make stores of knowledge.
Then you can't carry it; it is too heavy a burden. But it is brief wisdom that makes us move toward our Lord. He is inviting us, and we must go to Him.
Allah Almighty chooses among His servants for giving His divine wisdoms. When He looks at His servant's heart and sees Himself, He gives that person from His divine wisdoms. But if anyone keeps his heart for dunya, for his nafs, he may be given so much knowledge, but without benefit. Therefore the Prophet asked from his Lord Almighty "Tilman naf'ian," knowledge that gives benefit - and that is hikmah, that is wisdom.
It is not going to be easy. We must work on it. And firstly, you must cut your ego's desires and you must put a limit on your ego, on its desires. If you leave your ego, your nafs, free, you can't find any limit to its desires, so that it is always occupying you and making you its slave; no time for your Lord's service, for your Lord's worship. Therefore, we must put a limit on our nafs, on its desires. An
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